1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure is generally directed to infant car seats and carriers, and more particularly to an infant car seat with a base having a safety harness lock-off arm that blocks installation of the carrier until in a lock-off position.
2. Description of Related Art
Infant car seats are known in the art. Most infant car seats have a base that secures to a vehicle seat and a seat or carrier that removably mounts on or attaches to the base. Many bases for infant car seats are secured to the vehicle seat by routing a base anchoring strap or belt across a belt bath defined on the base. The base anchoring strap can be a lap belt part and/or shoulder strap part of the vehicle's dedicated safety harness for the seat on which the base is being secured. The base anchoring strap may instead be an anchor strap that is supplied with and secured to the base or at least provided with the infant car seat. Such straps typically connect to fixed anchor points on the vehicle seat.
Some infant car seat bases use or can use the lap belt and sometimes also a portion of the shoulder strap extended across the base and latched to the vehicle belt latch for this purpose. Some infant car seats have lock-off clamps positioned on one side or on both sides of the base. The clamps are used to clamp down on or lock the anchoring strap in place on the base. Car seats for larger children often also use a shoulder belt to secure the seat in place on the vehicle seat. These types of seats also are known to have a lock-off for the vehicle's shoulder belt. This lock-off function is a known secondary feature that is used to squeeze and secure the anchoring belt or strap to the base.
It is known that some users forget to or choose not to utilize the lock-off feature. Known infant car seats still allow the seat or carrier to be mounted on or attached the base, regardless as to whether the lock-off feature is utilized properly or not. It has also been found that child restraint systems, a broader class of seating systems that include infant car seat systems, are often not correctly installed in a vehicle by the end user. One cause is a loose connection between the vehicle seat and vehicle's safety harness system and the seating device or base of the child restraint system or infant car seat.